Generally, needle trays used in the transport of brachytherapy needles pre-loaded with brachytherapy radioactive “seeds” are known. However, the trays currently available on the market either poorly support the delicate pre-loaded needles inside or are difficult to work with for both the individual inserting the needle/stylet into these trays and the person removing them from the tray.
Additionally, the current designs often times create a barrier to performing a necessary piece of quality control called a radiograph. When performing a radiograph, a piece of x-ray film, properly encased to prevent exposure to light, is laid over the lower half of the loaded needles in the tray. If the tray is too thick it will not allow the x-ray film to almost touch the shaft of the loaded needles as the radiograph procedure is being performed. This results in a poorly defined image of the seed placement in the series of pre-loaded needles. A poorly defined image makes it difficult to determine whether the seeds loaded inside the needles are spaced according to the “pre-plan” loading pattern for the given case.
Further problems result from the current designs of the channel in which the loaded needle/stylet combination is inserted. Current designs typically require the needle to be “woven” through a series of small slits in the tray to secure the series of needles in the proper order in the tray. Because each tray will contain an average of about 30 needles and about 100 radioactive seeds, the longer it takes the user to get the needles into the tray, the more radioactive exposure the user will receive, creating a more dangerous work environment.
Other tray designs require the operator to send the needle down a channel. When the channel is too big, this negatively affects the quality of the radiograph. When the channel is too small, then the target into which the operator must thread the needle is too small.
In addition, all available trays on the market lay flat or are rolled up during shipping and when in the operating room, at implant time, are laid flat. A flat tray makes assess to the needles difficult because the needle is against the tray on one side leaving little room for the users fingers to grasp the small needle hub. Complicating the matter further is the fact that the needles are aliened close to the next needle leaving little room for fingers.